Guitar Books the Podcast Podcast Por Joe McMurray arte de portada

Guitar Books the Podcast

Guitar Books the Podcast

De: Joe McMurray
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Join Joe McMurray as he thoroughly reviews guitar books – method, technique, song and repertoire. There are hundreds of books on the market, and Joe will help you to find the best book that explores your area/style of interest at the proper level of difficulty. Joe is a professional player and teacher with a formal background in jazz guitar, but extensive experience with folk, rock, blues, funk, and classical styles on instruments including the guitar, ukulele, piano, bass, banjo, and drums. He has released two solo fingerstyle guitar and ukulele albums, played on numerous rock recordings, and written his own book on arranging for fingerstyle guitar.© 2023 Joe McMurray Music Arte Historia y Crítica Literaria Música
Episodios
  • Fingerstyle Progress Through General Guitar Method Books

    Fingerstyle Progress Through General Guitar Method Books
    Mar 24 2026
    General guitar method books are intended to guide beginner players through a comprehensive study of technique, reading standard notation, playing basic chords, etc. However, they can provide a very useful platform for acoustic fingerstyle practice if you know how to use them! Today we’ll take a look at two widely used guitar method books that are closely related: Essential Elements for Guitar: Comprehensive Guitar Method (Will Schmid and Bob Morris), andHal Leonard’s Guitar Method Book 1 (Will Schmid and Greg Koch) For years, I used the Hal Leonard Guitar Method with my kid students, but at some point, I came across the Essential Elements book (which is also published by Hal Leonard). This book shares Will Schmid as an author, and most of the treble clef exercises and melodies are exactly the same, but there are a bunch of extra tunes mixed in to give students more chordal practice. Other than about $3 in price difference, there is really no reason to ever buy the Hal Leonard Guitar Method. These books do have value to beginner players who just picked up a guitar and have no idea where to start. You can’t go wrong working through a general method book, especially with a teacher who can ensure that you are developing the proper technique, who can introduce appropriate supplemental repertoire, etc. However, if you are trying to teach yourself to play guitar, a general method book will certainly get your farther than watching random YouTube videos. A book like this will guide you from point A to point B in a linear, sensible course of study, whereas YouTube videos tend to jump around from topic to topic according to YouTube’s algorithm rather than your best interest as an aspiring guitarist. Now, I almost never work with adult students straight through a book like this, as many of them already have some experience and have somewhat clear musical goals that may be better served with a more focused book. For example, there are fingerstyle method books for my fingerstyle students, there are classical method books for my classical students, and so on. However, having spent over a decade teaching kids out of these books, I have found that many of these melodies make great platforms for fingerstyle guitar! In a typical guitar lesson, a teacher may ask their student to perform a melody from the book. The teacher will generally either watch and listen closely or they will provide some sort of accompaniment – that is, They will play the melody in unison with the student to help guide them,They’ll play a harmony that is written out in the book, orThey’ll strum the chords. Over the years I started accompanying my students with solo fingerstyle versions of the tunes to provide both their melody and the underlying harmony. This has proven to be helpful to my students, challenging and satisfying for myself, and fun for all. I’m planning to do a series of videos breaking down how I create these little arrangements. My process has been codified in my book Arranging for Fingerstyle, which is available as an eBook which you can purchase through the link in the show description below. However, for this first video, I’ll just give you a sample of how I transform some of the exercises. My own books: Arranging for Fingerstyle Guitar: go to http://joemcmurray.com/checkout/ to purchase a pdf of my eBook. Learning to arrange melodies will also help your fingerstyle songwriting and your understanding of the inner workings of fingerstyle guitar. Fingerstyle Blues Guitar: An In-Depth Study of the 12-Bar Blues in E Major – Books 1 and 2 are available in paperback or as an eBook through Amazon [https://a.co/d/g7Udsso (Book 1) and https://a.co/d/aDbh4H0 (Book 2)]. The first priority of these books is to quickly get you playing a solo instrumental 12-bar blues, and then to build on it until you can freely improvise or “jam.” You should be up and running by the end of the third chapter, and each following chapter will add icing on the cake. My upcoming book, Arranging for Fingerstyle Ukulele, will be published by Mel Bay in 2026. My music is available on all streaming platforms at https://open.spotify.com/artist/5dcokTG6C598OhTslHH5uo?si=hrQb7FViSZewDRSgECw9Ew: Pins on the Map: my third fingerstyle guitar album was released on January 19, 2024. Watch the first single, “Open Road,” on YouTube here: https://youtu.be/uPBh8sZQsT4?si=EM_wAwnHFqU1VC9C. Riding the Wave and Acoustic Oasis: my first two fingerstyle guitar albums.
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    19 m
  • Comparison #3: Best Fingerstyle Blues Repertoire Books

    Comparison #3: Best Fingerstyle Blues Repertoire Books
    Mar 3 2026
    Looking to learn new fingerstyle blues tunes to play on your acoustic guitar? This is a rundown of my favorite fingerstyle blues repertoire books. Hopefully you have already seen my previous video of “Best Fingerstyle Blues Method Books.” Method books provide a guided course of study with explanatory text, exercises, example tune arrangements, etc. In this video I will be talking about my favorite fingerstyle blues repertoire books, which simply provide tune arrangements and possibly some background info for each tune. I’ve been through many, many books, and I have been teaching and performing professionally for over a decade, so hopefully my insights can help guide you to the book that is best for you! Be aware that all of these repertoire books provide standard notation and tablature, and most of them do NOT provide any picking or fretting hand fingering. Working out optimal fingering is extremely important when learning an arrangement – good fingering choices make playing easier and minimize the potential for mistakes. Best Repertoire Books 1) The Complete Acoustic Blues Guitar Method (Mann, 2014) Repertoire book that presents lots of tunes from across the many subgenres of fingerstyle blues. These are solid arrangements that occasionally provide multiple choruses to show variations- this is extremely valuable for extending short tunes into performance length pieces. It is also worth analyzing the author’s variations so that you can learn to create your own! Late beginner to advanced, but majority of the tunes are of an intermediate difficulty. I really like the organization of the book: tunes are organized by subgenre, and within each section the tunes are arranged from easiest to hardest. Each tune comes with nice historical background info and listening recommendations. 2) 12-Bar Fingerstyle Blues (Rubin, 2012) Repertoire book. Mostly intermediate. More repetitive grooves than some of the other fingerstyle blues books on the market. Fewer lyrical phrases in the melodies. I like that the tunes organized by subgenre, but the difficulty jumps around from tune to tune. For experienced players, this is a fast book to work through. Because each tune is a 12-bar chorus, you will get a lot of ideas that you can digest, combine, and make your own in the future. Next, I want to introduce a special book that doesn’t quite fit into the simple “Repertoire Book” category: 3) The New Art of Ragtime Guitar (Saslow, 2011, 2017 2nd Ed.) This book is essentially a repertoire book of ragtime blues tunes, but the analysis that accompanies each tune is extensive and extremely valuable. Late beginner to advanced and difficulty progresses with each tune. These tunes are really fun, and you will gain valuable insight from the analysis. The author coaches you through fingering choices, his use of guide, anchor, or pivot fingers, etc. These lessons will make you a better player. 4) Fingerstyle Blues Songbook (James, 2005) Another repertoire book with good arrangements and historical background info. Honestly, it’s not all that much different from Woody Mann’s The Complete Acoustic Blues Guitar Method, but this book is much shorter. Late-beginner to intermediate, although advanced players will certainly enjoy the tunes as well. 5) Complete Country Blues Guitar Book (Grossman, 1992) Repertoire book. Good arrangements. Lots of authentic tunes. Stefan Grossman is an incredible musicologist who helped rediscover and promote much of the old fingerstyle blues music of the 1920s and 30s. I really like the interviews and historical information that he has included making this a great coffee table book. Late-beginner to intermediate. Tunes organized by subgenre. Strange TAB. *6) Solo Blues Guitar (Rubin, 2006) Repertoire – I’m putting this book at the end because it is NOT a fingerstyle blues guitar book. The examples can be played fingerstyle, but most seem to work best with a plectrum/pick/flatpick. However, I want to include this book for a couple reasons: It is focused on solo blues guitar arrangementsI LOVE this book. These examples are fun and they inspire me to improvise in new ways with new grooves. Like Rubin’s 12-Bar Fingerstyle Blues, these tunes also feature repetitive grooves alternating with melodic lines and licks, rather than choruses focused on lyrical melodies. My own books: Fingerstyle Blues Guitar: An In-Depth Study of the 12-Bar Blues in E Major – Books 1 and 2 are available in paperback or eBook through Amazon [https://a.co/d/g7Udsso (Book 1) and https://a.co/d/aDbh4H0 (Book 2)]. The first priority of these books is to quickly get you playing a solo instrumental 12-bar blues, & then to build on it until you can freely improvise or “jam.” You should be up and running by the end of the third chapter, and each following chapter will add icing on the cake. Arranging for Fingerstyle Guitar: go to http://joemcmurray.com/checkout/ to purchase a pdf of...
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    8 m
  • Comparison #2: Best Fingerstyle Blues Method Books

    Comparison #2: Best Fingerstyle Blues Method Books
    Feb 20 2026
    If you want to get started playing fingerstyle guitar, you will benefit from private lessons with a teacher, online video courses, listening to fingerstyle recordings, and of course… books. It is beneficial to mix and match all of these resources. Remember that everyone’s brain works differently, so you may gravitate more toward certain styles of learning / methods of presentation. I love learning from books because I can read the text at my own pace and as many times over as I want. Seeing the music written out is extremely helpful for me – I always had more difficulty keeping track of song forms or chord progressions without some sort of written reference. So, for those of you who want to utilize a fingerstyle blues book to beef up your chops, I’ve done my homework and I’ve distilled my favorites into this “greatest hits” list. I’ll try to be objective and describe who each book is best suited to. Additionally, I’ll separate things out and first tell you about my favorite method books and then my favorite repertoire books. Method Books Guided course of study with explanatory text, exercises, example tune arrangements, etc. Repertoire Books Tune arrangements and possibly some background info for each tune. Method Books ** Travis-Style Guitar From Scratch (Emery, 2006) My all-time favorite book for learning to play solo fingerstyle guitar with an alternating bass or “Travis-style”, which is used in much fingerstyle blues playing. Beginnner to intermediate. Lots and lots of exercises, smooth difficulty progression, repeated tunes at increasing difficulty levels, text with a sense of humor. * Fingerstyle Guitar From Scratch (Emery, 2003) Great for absolute beginner guitar players looking to step into the world of fingerstyle guitar. More focused on fingerstyle accompaniment or backup rather than solo fingerstyle guitar. Now on to my favorite method books that are focused on fingerstyle blues. 1) Acoustic Guitar Fingerstyle Method (Hamburger, 2007) Method book – could be the best initial book to work through if you’re just getting started with fingerstyle blues or fingerstyle in general. Effective organization of topics, progressive exercises, short but fun song arrangements at the end of each chapter. Primarily aimed at beginner to intermediate, but some of the final chapters are fairly difficult. Overall, this book provides a great overview of the techniques and approaches used in fingerstyle blues, giving you a solid foundation. After working through this book, you could move on to any of the other method or repertoire books that I’m about to introduce, where you can refine your skills and technique, learn to improvise, and learn more tunes. 2) Fingerstyle Blues Guitar: An In-Depth Study of the 12-Bar Blues in the Key of E Major: Books 1 & 2 It is without shame that I present my own books. These method books are focused on lyrical improvisation over monotonic bass. First priority of these books is to quickly get you playing a solo instrumental 12-bar blues in the key of E major, and then to build on it until you can freely improvise or jam.You should be up and running by the end of the 3rd chapter, and each subsequent chapter will add icing to your cake.Organized the books so that the concepts and exercises progress logically, thoroughly, and with a smooth difficulty progression. Take care to explain how to immediately apply each concept to your playing. These are essentially one long book split down the middle: Book 2 picks up right where Book 1 left off. It was just too long – it would have been around 350 pages.I recommend that everyone start with Book 1, which is suitable for all skill levels. Complete beginner players who work through the first few chapters should be able to improvise a satisfying fingerstyle blues solo. Intermediate to advanced players will breeze through the first few chapters, but will hopefully pick up some useful information starting around Chapter 4. Book 2 is more suitable for intermediate to advanced players. It digs deeper into higher level concepts that are more technically and theoretically difficult, but will elevate your playing to new levels. You will learn to play new scales, turnarounds, rhythms, time signatures, key signatures, and more! Again, I recommend that everyone start with Book 1, and then move on to Book 2. When comparing my books to other fingerstyle blues books on the market, most other books focus on playing the blues over an alternating or Travis-style bassline, although they may present some material on using a monotonic bassline.One other book, which, SPOILER, happens to be the next on my list, focuses on playing the blues over a monotonic bassline – Joseph Alexander’s Fingerstyle Blues Guitar. I was honestly very influenced by this book, and I highly recommend it in addition to mine! However, Alexander’s book focuses more on teaching you a bunch of authentic blues language and licks over ...
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    15 m
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